Lynx wines Franschhoek South Africa wine winery
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Lynx wines Franschhoek South Africa wine winery At Lynx we use Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) in all our vineyards. This means that the shoots are trained to grow vertically upwards, creating a tall, narrow canopy which ensures that all leaves are exposed to the sun either in the morning or the afternoon. This is crucial for successful ripening of the grapes.

We 'green harvest' at veraison (the ripening phase). At this stage it is easy to see which bunches, or parts of a bunch, will ripen later, and these are cut out and discarded. This is done to get uniform ripeness at time of harvest.

Soil moisture is carefully controlled. Moisture readings down to 1m deep are taken daily at fourteen stations throughout the vineyards. This information is downloaded onto a computer and irrigation schedules are adjusted accordingly. There are times of the year when we induce stress by starving the vine of water to ensure small, highly concentrated berries. At other times the vine must be 'happy' for the grapes to accumulate sugars and acids.

Lynx wines Franschhoek South Africa wine winery Pruning starts at the end of July, towards the end of winter, when the vines are still dormant. The vines are pruned in such a way to limit their yield to approximately 8 tons per hectare. Ripening commences at the beginning of January, and at this stage it is easy to identify bunches (or parts of bunches) which are ripening late. These bunches are the cut off (known as green harvesting) to ensure even ripeness of the remaining grapes at harvest. The final yield is between 6-7 tons per hectare.

Harvest usually starts with the Merlot in the last days of January, and carries on until early April, when the last of the Cabernet Sauvignon is harvested.

We produce about 90 tons of grapes, of which we keep 30 tons for our own wines and the rest of the grapes we sell to another private cellar.